Mac and Cheese Waffles, Leftover Makeover!

Mac and Cheese Waffle topped with Sarayo by Xhico

My aunt sends me emails constantly of stuff to try cooking. I think somewhere in the flurry of her emails I saw something about Mac and Cheese Waffles. I never read the article, but remembered it today when I was thinking of what to do with all this leftover amazing Mac and Cheese. So I decided to pull out the waffle iron and give it a go.

I gave the waffle iron a light coat of non-stick cooking spray and heated it up on medium-high. Then I saw some smoke and could smell a burning odor. Oops. I put the cooking spray onto way too soon. But I kept going. I sliced out a piece of mac and cheese from the casserole dish. I laid it in the waffle iron and it began to sizzle. I pressed the waffle iron until it was tight. I could hear the cheese crackling away and I could begin to smell it in the air. It was delightful. I waited and waited for about 8 minutes and thought it was done.

When I opened the waffle maker my macaroni surprise fell apart. The center feel right out as the top stuck snuggly to waffle iron. I pried it away from the top and bottom and set the crispy bits on a paper towel. I tasted them and they were salty, cheesy, crispy goodness. I had to make this work. Being a designer, makes me a good problem solver among other things.

After a quick wipe down, I let the waffler get hot. This time I sprayed a nice coat of non-stick cooking spray right before I put the slice of mac and cheese in. Also, I just gave it a gentle pressure as I closed it and didn't force it in too hard. This time I waited with anticipation. Would my adjustments give me a magic-mac-cheesy-waffle?

The aroma of the cheese crisping was promising. The crackling sound was another sign things were going good. After about 10 minutes I opened the waffle iron and it came away from what has become a golden crunchy crust of cheese. "Yahoo!" I exclaimed. I was so excited that I had actually accomplished this leftover make-over. I took the waffle out and could hardly wait to eat it. I threw it on a plate, topped it with some Sarayo and got to work on that salty, crackly, gooey, cheesy wonder waffle.

Get my BAKED MAC AND CHEESE RECIPE here!

Leftouts: Making Beef Broth

I try to use all of my resources to their full potential - even all my leftouts. After Christmas I had some leftover prime rib bones with alot of meat and fatty tissue still attached to the bone. I decided to make a beef broth. It was fairly simple. There really is no "recipe" you can do it all to taste, say with bone, a carrot, couple green onions and couple cloves of garlic. Just reduce the ingredients accordingly and to taste. Anything goes.

From this process you will yield three products for future use: Beef Broth, Beef Tallow and Beef Meat.

1. I took a large stock pot and filled it with water (about 8 cups) and set it on high.

Use leftover prime rib bones to make beef broth. 

2. I then added:

• Leftover Prime Rib bones with meat and fat on bone
• 1 carrot cut into 3 pieces
• 6 cloves of garlic
• 4 green onions cut into thirds
• 
  
• 2 tsp thyme
• 4 bay leaves
• 1 tsp of salt
• 1 tsp fresh ground black pepper
• 1 tsp fresh ground green pepper

3. Bring all ingredients to a boil. This takes about 15 minutes.

4. Reduce heat to medium-low and simmer for an hour and a half.

5. Add two more cups of water. Salt and pepper some more. 

Bring all ingredients to boil and reduce to simmer

6. Simmer until meat falls off the bone. About another hour. Just keep checking on it.

Remove and discard bones, carrot pieces and onion.

7. Remove from heat. Remove and discard the bones, carrot pieces and any large chunks of fat. You probably wont see much left of the garlic and onion. After they cook this long, they basically dissolve.

Strain broth from meat

8. Have a large bowl with a strainer ready. Empty and strain stockpot with remaining beef broth and beef pieces. Set aside strained meat pieces. Remove large pieces of fat and carrots in the meat mixture and reserve the meat for later use.

Set meat aside and refrigerate broth for about an hour.

9. Refrigerate bowl with broth for about an hour until it "sets". You will see a white solid layer form on top of the broth. 

White solid layer of "tallow" will form on top.

10. After solid layer forms on top of broth, remove from fridge. This solid white layer you are seeing is the fat (which when was raw was called "suet") now solidified into a "tallow". You will save this part to use later.

Gently remove top layer with fork.

Take a fork down the edge of the bowl and gently separate the solid layer from the layer below by slowly lifting it up. Do this slow and be careful to try to keep it in one piece and it will be less messy. Remove this piece and set aside on a piece of foil. 

11. Below the fat layer you will see a gelatinous brown liquid. This is your broth base. Put in airtight container and freeze for future use or use immediately to make soup.

You now have three resources from this process to use:

Broth base - use immediately or freeze for future use. Gently heat on low and add a little water until mixture returns completely to a liquid. You can use this for a base to make delicious soups.

Beef Meat - use immediately or freeze for future use. This meat is great for taquitos, tacos and pasta sauces.

Beef Tallow (Fat) - freeze this fat to use for the future. To use, gently reheat in a skillet. Use beef suet to make refried beans, fat base for gravy or to fry french fries.

Enjoy your new cooking resources!